Ranchiu/Srinagar: Balloting began in 16 assembly constituencies in Jammu Kashmir and in 17 of the 81 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand in the third round of the five-phase elections on Tuesday.
In Kashmir, over 13 lakh voters will get to decide the political fate of 138 candidates in the districts of Baramulla, Budgam and Pulwama at 1,781 polling stations.
Polling started at 8 a.m. and will end at 4 p.m.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Chowdhary Taj Mohiuddin, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Abdul Rahim Rather and Javaid Ahmad Dar are among the prominent candidates.
No constituency in Jammu region goes to the polls Tuesday.
Over 500 companies of Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force have been deployed following the terror attacks of Dec 5 that left 21 people dead.
In Jharkhand, over 50 lakh voters, including 23.5 lakh women, will decide the political fate of 289 candidates in the fray. Polling will take place in 5,865 polling booths.
Voting started at 7 a.m. and will end at 3 p.m. in 15 seats while balloting will continue till 5 p.m. in two constituencies.
Former chief minister Babulal Marandi, former assembly speaker C.P. Singh, Annapurna Devi of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Rajendra Prasad Singh of the Congress and Jai Prakash Bhai Patel of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha are among the prominent candidates in this phase.